Oh yea, so I totally didn’t post about anything else I served when Anna came over for dinner. Since Welsh Rarebit is so decadent I wanted to keep the main meal light so I threw a couple of tuna steaks in a pan and served them with an orange and olive relish, roasted mushrooms and lightly dressed arugula. For dessert I went for my favorite go-to; chocolate chip sour cream cake.

This is one of my most requested recipes and also one that I’m very proud of. This is the first baked good recipe that I ever came up with on my own. I find creating a recipe while cooking a snap; a pinch of this and a dash of that until it comes together. Baking, however, takes a lot more precision and a lot more science so it was a leap in to the unknown for me to come up with this recipe. Luckily the gamble paid off.

This is my kind of cake, moist and not too sweet; more like a coffee cake. It’s also easy to make and can be made up to 3 days ahead and wrapped tightly in foil. It also travels well so it’s one of my favorite things to bring for a pot luck.

Sorry that I forgot to take a picture of it out of the pan or sliced.

Chocolate Chip Sour Cream Cake

• 1 cup of full fat sour cream
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup milk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 2 large eggs
• 1 2/3 cups flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/8 teaspoon (or one large pinch) salt
• 1 cup chocolate chips (I like milk chocolate, but you can use whatever you like best)

Preheat over to 350. Oil a 9 inch springform pan (or you a regular 9×3 in pan if you don’t have a springform).

Whisk together sour cream, vegetable oil, sugar, milk and vanilla.

Add eggs one at a time whisking after each addition.

Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together over the wet ingredients.

Stir until just combined. The batter will be a little lumpy.

Add the chocolate chips and give a quick stir.*

Pour batter in to greased pan and back 45-55 minutes until a tester comes out clean.

*Cooks note. There are all kinds of tricks to prevent your chips from falling to the bottom, but I like to stir 3/4 of them in to the batter; pour the batter in to the pan and then scatter the rest on top. If you forget it won’t effect the taste or texture at all, it just looks a bit prettier with the chips on top.